Using A Zestimate In Texas...

I believe Zillow is an excellent overall tool, we use it, my clients use it adn would not even deal with me if I would not use it, so we take it seriously.

But like any general tool, it has limitations. When I use a subscription service to attorney's network, they disclaim, that they are not counselling me, they provide general information.

Same here. Like doctors. Your doctor in Denver may be the best in the world, but if you need a emergency opeartion while you are in Boston, a local doctor would do it.

Zestimates are rarely right on in my own market.  Now I want to go check out their accuracy in my market.

I have preached this for years.  Zillow is so not accurate in Texas, yet some really want to believe it!

Greg, Texas has it right!  Privacy is being invaded.  Years ago, many real estate listings were priced based on the knowledge and experience of local brokers.  Trial and error, comparing notes and properties was how they arrived at their Guestimate or Guessimation.

 Like a flint rock, they worked their piece of flint until they honed it into an arrowhead.  I remember some of those old brokers, and what a priviledge a new agent considered it to be to have such a mentor.  Knowledge was personal and private.  That changed with the Multiple Listing Service, and only REALTORs® had such access.  Now, we do the research and leg work.  We secure the listings, only to see them sold for profit to those who turn around and sell us our own work.  You list it, and I pay to market local listings.  I spend time and my knowledge preparing a buyer to qualify for a home loan, then he finds a property on the internet, clicks a few buttons, and then I learn he is working with another agent.  It is not necessarily that we lose a prospect to another agent, but that we had to pay for the priviledge of preparing the buyer for someone else.  There are benefits, as well as disappointments, but that which we thought would make our jobs easier has come to also make it more difficult and disappointing.  Onward we must go, playing by the rules, and knowing we provide a valuable service.  More power to Texas: limit access to information to licensed agents in good standing with their MLS.

What is pretty obvious from the chart you offer is that Z is at most accurate about 30-35% of the time.